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Friday, March 23, 2007

Well, its official now. India is almost certainly out of the world cup unless Bangladesh decides to be generous and lose to Bermuda. Srilanka deserved to win today. Its even more important that we stay calm and not hurl abuse at our cricketers. We need to recognise the kind of pressure heaped on them and how impossible it is to keep performing at your best under such constant pressure. The Indian cricketers not only need to worry about their performance but also about what will happen to their houses and family back home.

Sachin Tendulkar was out for a duck today. For all his achievements, the only thing the short sighted media will harp about is his failure in the finals fours years ago and his duck today. He may not be the same batsman he was 4 years ago but without doubt, he is still one of the better batsman in the Indian lineup.

I have been following the world cup and supporting India with as much passion as any other Indian. That doesn't mean that we own them. They have tried their best and some times, best isn't good enough. They were outplayed by Bangladesh and they were outclassed by Srilanka today. Our run up to the world cup was pretty good with convincing series victories over West Indies and Srilanka. Unfortunately, we had a bad run in the world cup and that's it. There is no point getting worked up over it. If you cant stomach it, don't support the team. This is not the time to act like fanatics and be ungrateful. It may be the last world cup for some of our players including Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and Anil Kumble. It's more likely that they will be gutted to the core without the public having to rub it in. All these players have given us so much pleasure that the least we can do is to act with dignity and give them to time and space needed to recover. Over the years, the same Indian team have given us so much pleasure and joy and lets be thankful for that. They are after all trying to do their job and they don't need to be scrutinized so much after each failure. Imagine, if we were scrutinized as much at our jobs. We would all be one nervous wreck.

I have been reading reports about how the world cup committee and the sponsors will face huge losses if India fails to qualify for the super eights. Well, damn them. If India fails to qualify, all it means is, that the teams that deserved to qualify made it. This would make the super eights all the more competitive and fun to watch. It would also give countries like Bangladesh and Ireland an opportunity to pit themselves against superior opposition and show what they are worth. They may get hammered and make some matches one sided but they did well enough to qualify. Lets not mourn that India didn't make it. Lets enjoy the performance by countries that did make it.

Finally, its the public and media together that makes a star out of a cricketer and vilifies them after each failure. We should learn to be more dispassionate and objective. This will help us in accepting defeats with the same grace that we accept victories. Its a game after all and not a matter of life and death. GET A LIFE. DEAL WITH IT.